At present, installers of cables, wires or the like for utilities companies draw from a reel a quantity of wire or cable to be installed. One example of a package of wire or cable and of a method of producing such package is that known under the trademark REELEX and may be found described in Canadian patents no. 970,749 issued Jul. 8, 1975 and U.S. Pat. No. 1,071,605, both issued Feb. 12, 1980 in the name of Windings, Inc. One problem with such a package is the manner in which the wire is coiled, i.e. in a 8-shape. When a pull is exerted on the wire to deliver it from the package, the wire tends to retain a certain amount of stress due to its packaged configuration, which stress causes a spring effect in the wire often resulting in entanglement of strands. Also, this package is delivered in a non-reusable cardboard box (usually waxed) causing environment problems, once emptied and discarded. Another problem is that some cable is always lost since unused pulled-out cable cannot be rewound into the package or in the box.
In other wire dispensing devices, such as ordinary reels, again, it has been found that there are important losses of unused cables and wires whenever a reel is not equipped with a system to stop effectively the rotation of the reel; this results in an oversupply of wire, or cable, as it is removed from the reel. Such oversupply is lost because, for the operator, it is difficult or too time-consuming to rewind it at the end of each installing operation. For him, it is much simpler to cut and dispose of the excess wire than to rewind it. They are other problems associated with such oversupply, such as, again, entanglement of strands on the ground or floor as well as the possibility of having the strands laying in areas where they should not be present or in contact with parts or things with which they ought not to be.